Hypotheses

I come away from class this afternoon with the notion of "frontier lands" in mind, specifically in the context of the Libros de Recimiente, penned after the conquest of various Moorish lands by Christian armies from 1291 to 1491 (Selection 41 from Constable's Medieval Spain).

These documents discuss who may settle on the newly conquered territory and with what rewards they would settle, as determined by age, sex, marriage, and military status. In a sense, they are not so far removed from both the English land grants in Ireland and the colonization efforts of the New World, such as Jamestown and Roanoke. This provides a strange polarity though, the English grants in Ireland were quite different in method and motivation from those in America (though both were English endeavors). The Libros, I think, are a middle ground between these.

The hostile frontier bears wide implications for those who will settle upon them. Along with the usual vicissitudes of medieval agrarian and urban life come the added pressures of a nearby enemy and a tenuous governance. There was little assurance, at the distant extremes of the Christian territories, that the armies of the king, be he of Aragon, Castile, Portugal, or otherwise, would be active enough to watch over the fledgling townships in times of strife. This meant that each settlement was required to have its own militia, in hopes of providing some protection from the restless natives. This is an aspect shared across all examples. In North America, there were American Indian populations to watch for, in Ireland there were, of course, the Irish, and in Spain the Moors were not always compliant with the whims of their ever-changing rulers.

The scenarios differ in that the Irish lands were offered as rewards for noblemen. Extra land to hand out in the creation of ever-more knights and lords. In the American and Spanish events, however, there is much more of a colonization effort. These two are concerned with creating a foothold in new territories and holding tight. The American instance does differ, however, in that there was no infrastructure available to the colonists, whereas the Spanish were given the well-tended lands of evacuating Muslims. In this way, some further similarity between the Spanish and Irish is seen, as some of the lands granted the English included those tended and cultivated by the Irish.

Another aspect of interest is the chronological element of the grants. In the Irish situation, lands were, as has been said, granted as reward for status - something already in place upon reception of the land. In the American case, the land was granted with the future in mind. Each individual was a cog in the machine of colonization, whose worth would be revealed in the sum of his life's efforts and the success of his colony. The Spanish case is a mix of the two - at times, the land is granted to wealthy nobleman, while at other times, it is given to any man with a wife. Though each have overtones of subjugation, the former is something of a reward, while the latter is done with an eye to building civilization, to the creation, rather than display, of wealth.